YEREVAN. – The Armenian Court of Appeals denied the motion to commute the restraining order of Turkish citizen Osman Ugurlu, his public defender Artak Garoyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.  

Garoyan informed that their motion was denied, and they still do not know the reasoning, which they will learn upon receiving the court response.  

Now, they are considering whether or not to appeal this decision at the Court of Cassation.  

The attorney added that although his client’s relatives have not come to see him, officials from the Turkish MFA have come to Armenia, spoken with him and left, but they have no information on their conversation.

Artak Garoyan also said the investigation will take several months.

A truck heading to Georgia was inspected on January 17 at Armenia’s Meghri customs checkpoint on the border with Iran. During the inspection of the truck, the Armenian customs officers found 927 kilograms of heroin in a secret compartment. The truck driver, Georgian citizen Avtandil Martiashvili (born in 1953), was detained. Turkish citizen Osman Ugurlu, 40, who is suspected of being an organizer of this major drug smuggling attempt, was later detained in Armenian capital city Yerevan. Such a large quantity of drugs was discovered for the first time in the region. The Armenian National Security Service launched a criminal case.